Articles by Grist staff

Give a Hoot, Don't Commute

The U.S. Transportation Department launched a new campaign yesterday to reduce pollution and encourage telecommuting by offering smog-emissions credits to companies that get more employees to work from home. Under a two-year pilot program, businesses that earn the credits will be able to swap them for air-quality requirements or sell them to other companies. The […]

Parris in the Summertime

As a last hurrah, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) says he will push for new restrictions on development along Maryland’s coastal bays. He says he will introduce a bill to preserve the wetlands and protect water quality in the next legislative session –which will be his final one in office — and he expects the […]

Kiwi Me a River

In a big loss for the Green Party in New Zealand, the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification has rejected the idea of a country free of genetically engineered crops and animals. The commission determined that biotech foods need not “threaten New Zealand’s ‘clean green’ image,” recommending that research on the foods “proceed with caution,” including […]

Fees: "Fie," Foes Fume

Organizers say more than 200 grassroots groups have sprung up across the U.S. to protest fees for using federal lands. In 1996, Congress launched a pilot program to allow certain national forests, refuges, and other federal lands to begin charging fees for access, parking, and campsites. Congress this year is deciding whether to extend and […]